Deltona firefighter accused of raping Altamonte Springs woman

Thursday

Jan 2, 2014 at 5:17 PMJan 3, 2014 at 9:44 AM

By PATRICIO G. BALONApatricio.balona@news-jrnl.com

A Deltona firefighter is being held in the Volusia County Branch Jail without bail, accused of raping an Altamonte Springs woman he met at a furniture store in Sanford, Volusia sheriff's investigators said.Terry Freeman II, 32, who works at the Deltona Fire Department's Station 61, located at Providence Boulevard, is charged with sexual battery with a deadly weapon or force, jail and arrest records show.Freeman, who was off duty at the time of the reported incident and was arrested Dec. 31, declined a request for a telephone interview from jail, but in an arrest report he denied having sexual intercourse with the woman although he admitted to sexual acts with the 25-year-old.“(The defendant) did unlawfully commit sexual battery...without that person's consent...and in the process thereof used or threatened to use a deadly weapon and/or used actual physical force likely to cause serious personal injury by choking,” investigators wrote in their reports.On Thursday, city of Deltona spokesman Lee Lopez said Freeman is still employed with the City of Deltona, pending the outcome of the court hearings. He said Freeman has been an employee with the fire department for a little less than a year.Lopez said all investigations of the sexual battery case are being conducted by the Sheriff's Office.Volusia investigators were first alerted to the reported sexual battery by Altamonte Springs police on Dec. 27, after the woman went to that agency to make a report, documents show. Investigations revealed that Freeman met the woman at the Hudson's Furniture Store in Sanford earlier in the day Dec. 27 when he went there shopping for a mattress. Freeman spoke briefly with the woman before buying a mattress, reports show.After Freeman left the store, he called the business and spoke to the woman, who ended up giving Freeman her cell phone number. Freeman initially invited the woman to his home via text message but she declined, investigators said.After texting back and forth, Freeman and the woman agreed to meet later that day at the Red Roof Cafe at 300 S. Volusia Ave. in Orange City, where she said she had two drinks. Freeman then invited the woman to hang out at his house and the woman accepted, deputies said.On the way home, Freeman stopped at a store to buy a six-pack of beer. Once at the home, the woman said she and Freeman started kissing but she made it clear to Freeman she was not having sex, investigators said.The woman told investigators she allowed Freeman to take her shirt and bra off and permitted him to touch and kiss her breasts, reports state.The pair then moved to Freeman's bedroom but the woman said she told Freeman she will not have sex, investigators said. The woman said Freeman started getting aggressive with her, trying to take her pants off. In the process, Freeman grabbed her by the throat, “causing a short period of choking sensation” as he raped her, reports show.The woman said she kept telling Freeman “no” and tried to push him off of her but she was unable to. When the woman left his house, Freeman asked her if he would see her again and the woman answered “probably not,” investigators said.When investigators questioned Freeman at his workplace the day after the reported rape, he told investigators he met the woman for the first time at the furniture store while he shopped with his girlfriend, whom he did not identify, investigators said. Freeman said he called back the store and agreed to meet with the woman at the cafe in Orange City.At his house he said he touched and kissed the woman's breast and moved to the bedroom because the couch was too small. In the bedroom, he said he masturbated in front of the woman and did other sexual acts with the woman but that he did not have sex with her, investigators said.Freeman also told investigators that he thought the Altamonte Springs woman would like getting choked because he heard some women enjoy that during sexual relations, investigators wrote in their report.In controlled text messages to the woman, monitored by investigators, Freeman did admit that he had sexual contact with her and that no condom was used. Freeman also told the woman that he did not have any sexually transmitted diseases, investigators said.